Huge pro-life coalition joins Members of Congress in calling for Reagan-era Title X rules

Washington, D.C. – More than 85 national and state pro-life groups are asking the Trump administration’s Department of Health & Human Services to take action on a top pro-life policy priority after Congress failed to stop taxpayer funding of abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. The coalition today sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar asking him to revise Title X family planning rules. The letter states:

“For far too long the Title X Family Planning Program has been integrated with abortion centers. It is time to act swiftly to disentangle abortion centers from the Title X network. Doing so would be consistent with the President’s pledge and subsequent actions to defund Planned Parenthood and reallocate funding to alternative providers.”

Forty-one U.S. Senators, led by Sens. Roy Blunt, Joni Ernst, James Lankford, and Steve Daines, and 153 U.S. Representatives, led by Reps. Ron Estes, Diane Black, Chris Smith, and Vicky Hartzler also sent letters today making the same request.

Explaining the significance of the request Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony List said:

“The pro-life grassroots are furious with the inability of the Republican-controlled Congress to stop taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. We urge the Trump administration to act swiftly to revise the Title X regulations, stopping the flow of Title X dollars to abortion centers. Planned Parenthood, which is the nation’s largest abortion business and responsible for more than 300,000 abortions a year, currently receives $50-60 million in Title X taxpayer dollars annually. A win like this would immediately disentangle taxpayers from the abortion business and energize the grassroots as we head into the critical midterm elections.”

A Marist poll from January 2018 found that six in ten Americans oppose the use of taxpayer funding for abortion.

Planned Parenthood has inflated the U.S. abortion rate and more than three million avoidable abortions can be attributed to Planned Parenthood’s intervention in the abortion market, according to a new study by Charlotte Lozier Institute researchers, published online in the peer-reviewed Open Journal of Preventive Medicine.

There are nearly 4,000 Title X service sites nationwide, less than 500 of which are Planned Parenthood facilities. The Reagan-era regulations would not decrease funding for Title X by a single penny. Funds would instead be directed to service sites willing to comply.

Under President Reagan, Title X regulations specifically directed taxpayer funding to Title X family planning locations that do not perform or refer for abortions. The Reagan regulations were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1991 in Rust v. Sullivan.

Susan B. Anthony List and its partner super PAC, Women Speak Out spent more than $18 million in the 2016 election cycle, knocking on more than 1.1 million doors in battleground states to defeat Hillary Clinton and maintain a pro-life Senate. SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women. The SBA List is a network of more than 630,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.